


Untouched mercy and bad times

by Ivaryna



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (kinda?), Gen, No Mercy, One Shot, Veteran Grillby, also holy fuck am I bad at coming up with a title, also you can totally read, into this but it's gen af, sansby - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 21:10:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6582559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivaryna/pseuds/Ivaryna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Run #47.<br/>Sans has a bit of a revelation.</p>
<p>(Alternative title: Sans and Grillby talk for like 3 minutes, the end.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untouched mercy and bad times

Snowdin was empty, dark, forsaken, not a single monster to be seen.

Going with the theme, Grillby’s, too, was closed, the windows dark, the curtains drawn.  
Inside, however, there was a single source of light: the owner of the bar, Grillby himself. The firey bartender sat at his own bar, rather than standing behind it like usual. Next to him, Sans knocked back his fourth drink within the last half hour.

Having provided the drinks without question up to this point, Grillby finally gave a soft, crackling sigh before turning to his companion and signing: “How many times…”

He did not get to finish the sentence before Sans answered.  
“this if the 47th. 45th if you don’t count the first two. the stars were beautiful, Grillbz. and yet they just…”  
Sans trailed off, refilling his glass with the open bottle beside them and, once again, knocking it down in one go.

“And how many times have you…”

“i died nine times now. the last five were in a row. dunno what they are hoping to get out of this.”

This time Sans decided to forego the glass altogether and took a swig directly from the bottle before standing up, surprisingly steady on his legs.  
“i should probably get going. can’t miss out on dying for the tenth time, now, can i?” He gave a humorless chuckle.

“I will go with you.”

“no, you won’t, Grillbz. we’ve had this discussion before, even if you don’t remember it. any change might just make them more likely to keep repeating this out of pure, sadistic curiosity! the way things are now, maybe they’ll get bored of it. maybe they’ll decide to go back to the beginning and pretend to be something that at least resembles an actual person.”

“That’s a lot of maybes, Sans. I just want to help.”

“i don’t need your help!”

Grillby gave Sans a decidedly unimpressed look at this rather childish sounding answer.

“I’m a grown adult many times your age, Sans. You can’t exactly stop me.”

“have fun getting there in time, then. the riverperson has fled and the path goes directly through waterfall. please. go on. don’t let me **rain** on your parade.”

Grillby’s flames crackled, the sound somehow managing to convey anger.  
Sans stood a little straighter and scowled at Grillby. The two glared at each other for a minute. Sans was the first to break eye contact and turn away slightly.

“just… stay here. please. i… i just don’t want to remember watching you die, too.” Memories of the few times Flowey had gotten very lucky came up, but this was different. "Not again."

Grillby, too, deflated a bit. Not only could he understand where Sans was coming from, he also knew that anger would get him nowhere, and the skeleton was right: Without his help, Grillby would never reach the Judgement Hall in time. But...

“You say that you don’t want to remember seeing me die… I don’t remember the resets like you do… but I do remember something, Sans. Flashes. Sitting here with you after you killed them, waiting for the reset.  
I remember you telling me that they had spared you in the previous timeline, and your anger at yourself for daring to hope that this time, they would really go back to the beginning.  
I remember you, crawling into my bar leaving a red trail of something before turning into dust right there.”

Grillby pointed towards the spot on his floor that he doubted he would ever be able to look at with the same eyes again.  
“Do you think I enjoy watching any of that?”

Sans seemed shocked. “i... i’m sorry, Grillby, i didn’t know… why didn’t you tell me that you were remembering?”

“The memories were very faint, at first, but they’ve been getting clearer. Please, Sans, just… let me help.”

“heh… fine. okay. let’s see how well they handle the **heat** , huh?”

“After everything they’ve done, I _do_ have a **bone** to pick with them.”

Sans’ smile turned a little bit less resigned and more real at that.

Grillby paused, considering. “How much time do we have left?”

“not a lot… 5 minutes or so?”

“I see. Give me a moment, then.”

He vanished through the backdoor while Sans glanced at the clock again. The kid seemed to get some sort of sick pleasure from killing him, so he figured that even if they were late they would find the kid waiting for him to show up, anyway.

He did not have to wait very long before Grillby came back. There was a strange fierceness in his step Sans had never seen before. Grillby had left on his normal trousers, but changed into what looked like sleeveless protective armor. There were quite a few scratches on it, but the delta rune was still clearly visible.  
In his right hand he held a sword, its blade black from what Sans assumed to be a component made to wield Grillby’s flames - it was, after all, famous.

Very famous.The elemental that had been one of the monster’s fiercest warriors with his flaming sword was one of the legends every little monster was told about, after all.  
He’d never realized it was Grillby.  
Grillby had, more than once, pointed out his age to Sans. Undyne, who had been quite close to Gerson, another veteran, had always been strangely polite and tame when visiting Grillby’s. Gerson himself came by occasionally, and once, when the bar had been closed for a few days, Sans had heard rumors that both the bartender and the old turtle were visiting Asgore.

He felt like an idiot.

Then he felt hope, because maybe the two of them together could actually do it.  

They left.

 

[It’s a nice day outside]

.

[Grillby would offer you mercy, but he never touches the stuff]

.

[Instead… y o u ’ l l   b e   b u r n i n g   i n   h e l l]


End file.
